Having made their way west by train and arrived at the Mississippi, Mark and
Martin make the acquaintance of General Cyrus Choke (the man in the tailcoat
standing in the Eytinge illustration), who conducts them to the offices of the
Valley of Eden Land Corporation [Continued below].

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On the wall of land-agent's ramshackle hut
Eytinge has positioned a map, but has not indicated its precise nature (as
opposed to Phiz's having included a detailed town plan in "The Thriving City of Eden as it Appeared on
Paper" for the September 1843, ninth monthly part). However, to add to the
verisimilitude of the illustration Eytinge has included Scadder's rocking chair
and office desk (left). The scene realised occurs just after Mark and Martin,
accompanied by Choke, arrive at the office of the Eden Land Corporation on the
banks of the Mississippi River:

They, desiring nothing more, agreed; so off they all four
started for the office of the Eden Settlement, which was almost within
rifle-shot of the National Hotel.

It was a small place — something like a turnpike.
But a great deal of land may be got into a dice-box, and why may not a
whole territory be bargained for in a shed? It was but a temporary
office too; for the Edeners were 'going' to build a superb establishment
for the transaction of their business, and had already got so far as to
mark out the site. Which is a great way in America. The office-door was
wide open, and in the doorway was the agent; no doubt a tremendous
fellow to get through his work, for he seemed to have no arrears, but
was swinging backwards and forwards in a rocking-chair, with one of his
legs planted high up against the door-post, and the other doubled up
under him, as if he were hatching his foot.

He was a gaunt man in a huge straw hat, and a coat of
green stuff. The weather being hot, he had no cravat, and wore his shirt
collar wide open; so that every time he spoke something was seen to
twitch and jerk up in his throat, like the little hammers in a
harpsichord when the notes are struck. Perhaps it was the Truth feebly
endeavouring to leap to his lips. If so, it never reached them.

Two gray eyes lurked deep within this agent's head, but
one of them had no sight in it, and stood stock still. With that side of
his face he seemed to listen to what the other side was doing. Thus each
profile had a distinct expression; and when the movable side was most in
action, the rigid one was in its coldest state of watchfulness. It was
like turning the man inside out, to pass to that view of his features in
his liveliest mood, and see how calculating and intent they were.

Each long black hair upon his head hung down as straight
as any plummet line; but rumpled tufts were on the arches of his eyes,
as if the crow whose foot was deeply printed in the corners had pecked
and torn them in a savage recognition of his kindred nature as a bird of
prey.

Such was the man whom they now approached, and whom the
General saluted by the name of Scadder.

"Well, Gen'ral," he returned, "and how are you?"

"Ac-tive and spry, sir, in my country's service and the
sympathetic cause. Two gentlemen on business, Mr. Scadder."

He shook hands with each of them, — nothing is done
in America without shaking hands, — then went on rocking.

"I think I know what bis'ness you have brought these
strangers here upon, then, Gen'ral?"

"Well, sir. I expect you may."

"You air a tongue-y person, Gen'ral. For you talk too
much, and that's fact," said Scadder. "You speak a-larming well in
public, but you didn't ought to go ahead so fast in private. Now!"

"If I can realise your meaning, ride me on a rail!"
returned the General, after pausing for consideration.

"You know we didn't wish to sell the lots off right away
to any loafer as might bid," said Scadder; "but had con-cluded to
reserve 'em for Aristocrats of Natur'. Yes!"

"And they are here, sir!" cried the General with warmth.
"They are here, sir!"

"If they air here," returned the agent, in reproachful
accents, "that's enough. But you didn't ought to have your dander ris
with me, Gen'ral."

The General whispered Martin that Scadder was the
honestest fellow in the world, and that he wouldn't have given him
offence designedly, for ten thousand dollars.

"I do my duty; and I raise the dander of my feller
critters, as I wish to serve," said Scadder in a low voice, looking down
the road and rocking still. "They rile up rough, along of my objecting
to their selling Eden off too cheap. That's human natur'! Well!"
[Chapter 21; Diamond Edition, p. 204-5]

Exactly as in the passage realised, Zaphaniah Scadder, the Eden Company's
land-agent, is "swinging backwards and forwards in a rocking-chair, with one of
his legs planted high up against the door-post, and the other doubled up
under him, as if he were hatching his foot" (204) — Eytinge has even
depicted the nails in the sole of his boot, but has not attempted to depict the
two very different sides of his face; rather, Eytinge shows him in profile.
Despite his casual posture and less formal attire, Scadder is as much a humbug
as Colonel Cyrus Coke, U. S. — or Seth Pecksniff, for that
matter. The General, like Pecksniff, is merely an American swindler of a higher
order: better dressed, more subtle, and more verbally persuasive. Their
underlying similarity Eytinge emphasises by equipping each of them with a
similar case-knife. In Phiz's celebrated engraving
"The Thriving City of Eden as it Appeared on Paper" (September 1843, Chapter
21) the land-agent circumspectly studies the two English "greenhorns," who in
turn study the town site plans for Eden with considerable enthusiasm. Sol
Eytinge, on the other hand, studies the swindlers without reference to their
latest victims. In both illustrations, Scadder wears a less formal straw hat,
doubtless to combat the heat. The wonderful textures of their faces and
clothing in Eytinge's woodcut make the pair seem outgrowths of nature and
extensions of the natural environment, although General Choke's visage more
nearly approaches that of a bird of prey than the phlegmatic Scadder's. To
Eytinge, they are typical carpet-baggers, and hardly "two of the most
remarkable men in the country," or "Aristocrats of Natur'." A telling detail
which Eytinge has invented is Scadder's picking his teeth with his case-knife